


on snow-kissed wings

by cinderfell



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gunslinger Vex, Ranger Percy, class swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 18:37:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/pseuds/cinderfell
Summary: The more things change, the more things stay the same.Or, the one with the meddling owl that just wants her dumb human to get it over with already.





	on snow-kissed wings

**Author's Note:**

> this is due in no small part to [kalidels](https://twitter.com/kalidels) drawing the loveliest class swap au for perc'ahlia!

He spends the first week in Vox Machina’s company keeping to himself, compulsively fletching arrows to keep his hands busy and talking only to the snowy white owl that’s followed him all the way from home.

(If he could even call Whitestone home anymore. It’s lost for all he knows, overrun by-- well, by whatever it is that those guests and their companions were.)

Despite his self-imposed isolation in a camp full of people, one member of the group seems particularly fascinated by him-- or, perhaps more accurately, by Cordelia, the owl at his side.

When the woman-- Vex, he reminds himself, the woman with the strange explosive machinery that fascinates him in turn, the woman he’s been so flustered by that he’d handed over all of his money to within hours of meeting her-- approaches him, he can’t really say he’s surprised.

“Percy,” she says, dark eyes and dark braid and a curious look on her face. “Do you think I could see her? Your owl, I mean.”

“Cordelia,” he corrects gently, glancing over at the owl in question. She’s perched up on a tree stump preening, uninterested in the two of them. At least she isn’t flying in Vex’s face screeching, not like she’d done to the twins when they’d finagled the door to his cell open and she hadn’t known if they’d hurt Percy or not. She’s incredibly protective for such a little thing.

“She, ah, isn’t used to other people touching her,” he warns. “So I wouldn’t stick your fingers out when she doesn’t know you, but-- well, if you’d like, I could let you hold her using a glove.”

Vex’s face lights up at the suggestion. “Really?”

Oh, dear. He’s really already gone for this woman and he’s only known her a week, isn’t he?

Percy clears his throat before he says, “Yes. If Cordelia is willing, of course.”

It takes a few minutes to get set up, rifling around in his bag for his glove so he can give it to her. It’s more than a little big on Vex, but she doesn’t seem to mind. He whistles a little tune and Cordelia responds, quirking her head to look at him. It’s a calming tune, one he whistles when they’re safe. He gestures at the gloved hand Vex extends in front of her and Cordelia flutters up and lands there.

Vex makes a little _oof_ sound when she does, looking like she wants to turn her attention to Percy but knowing that she should stay focused on the owl. “She’s heavier than I thought she’d be.”

Percy snorts. “Be careful. It’s not nice to talk about a lady’s weight, even a feathered lady. Especially when she’s sitting on your hand so nicely.”

After a moment of hesitation, Percy settles his hand on Vex’s shoulder. She doesn’t pull away, instead almost leaning into his touch as she looks at the snowy bird settled on her hand in wonder. Cordelia, for her part, seems incredibly uninterested in the whole thing, instead watching a butterfly fluttering near Keyleth’s antlers not far away.

Percy leans forward, incredibly aware of how close he is to the half-elf, and gently brushes his finger against the owl’s feathers near her chest. After a moment of no response, the bird suddenly coos happily and turns to look at the two of them, leaning into Percy’s touch.

“Oh my,” Vex whispers, eyes wide with wonder, absolutely captivated by the owl on her hand.

Oh no, Percy thinks as his heart swells as he watches her with his companion.

_Oh no._

* * *

A year with Vox Machina passes. Percy teaches Vex how to hold Cordelia and even how to whistle the right tune and send her flying in a specific direction. (He guesses that she only listens to the gunslinger because he spends roughly ten minutes beforehand begging her to listen because he doesn’t want to make Vex sad or look like a fool in front of her, but she listens nonetheless.)

He’s sitting against a tree at their latest camp fletching arrows, one eye on the half-elf sitting on a log across the clearing polishing her guns, when Cordelia suddenly begins to move.

She drops down from his shoulder and lands on the ground beside him, hopping among the tall grass that sways slightly in the wind. He adjusts himself against the tree as he watches her pick a few bright blue flowers with her beak, a fond smile spreading across his face.

“Are you courting someone?” he teases, and she turns to look at him, her beak full of blue and her eyes unexplainably knowing.

It’s like she gives him a _look_.

With that she takes off and he raises an eyebrow as he watches her go, a dapple of white against the otherwise cloudless blue sky.

When he sees where she lands, he can’t help but swear under his breath. “Why, you little--”

But there she is, perched up on Vex’ahlia’s shoulder with flowers like some sort of romantic delivery bird. Vex pauses what she’s doing as Cordelia settles.

She pulls all but one of the little blue flowers from her beak using her claws and hold them. Vex looks down at the owl in curiosity and Cordelia looks right back at her before she tucks the flower in her beak into the woman’s braid. Even from across the clearing Percy can see the way her eyes widen in delight, a wide grin breaking out across her face as the bird continues to push the flowers into the sections of her braid.

Job seemingly done, Cordelia coos contentedly at Vex before she takes off again. Vex’s eyes track her flight, finally settling on the owl’s destination: Percy. He feels heat on the back of his neck when her dark eyes settle on him, a weight on his shoulder as his companion lands. He drops his gaze down to his lap when their eyes catch, flustered by the intensity of hers even from this distance.

Face tilted down like this, he doesn’t need to worry about her reading his lips. He speaks softly anyways, because he knows how perceptive she is. “What game are you playing, Cordelia?”

Cordelia simply ruffles her feathers and hoots as if she’s offended that he didn’t appreciate her kind gesture towards Vex. Then she picks at his hair with her beak, preening him the way she’s taken to doing whenever she notices Vex is about to become involved.

A moment passes before he hears footsteps, muffled both by the soft grass and by her naturally quiet movement, and when a shadow casts over him he looks up again and Vex is standing in front of him, thumbs curled into the loops of her pants as she smiles. She has that hat of hers on now, the peculiar brimmed one with the plume on the top.

She looks ridiculous in it.

He loves her in it.

“I have to admit, Percy, that’s probably the most unique way I’ve ever been flirted with,” Vex says, amused.

He clears his throat, the heat traveling up to his cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I-- I didn’t tell her to do that.”

“Oh, darling, no need to deflect,” she says with a laugh. “I’m quite flattered.”

“Vex, really--”

He cuts off when Vex simply holds up a finger to her lips, still smiling, and tells him, “It’s alright. It’s quite charming, Percival.”

She reaches up and lightly plays over one of the blue blossoms in her braid with her fingertips, smile softening to match her gaze as she looks at him then, and it’s so-- the look she gives him is so gentle and fond that he’s afraid it’s going to kill him. Percival de Rolo, killed by a tender look from the woman he’s harbored feelings for since practically the day he met her. Quite a way to go.

“Thank you for the flowers, really,” she says, tilting her head to one side. “Thank you to both of you.”

Cordelia hoots proudly at her inclusion in the praise.

After a moment, Percy clears his throat and manages, “You’re welcome.”

“I have to finish polishing my guns, but after that…” Vex trails off, her smile suddenly turning sly before the damned woman _winks_ at him. “Perhaps I’ll make you something lovely in return.”

And then she’s gone, leaving him more than a little baffled and, well, flushed.

He’s not sure how to explain it, but the owl looks positively smug.

* * *

Time flies by like-- well, like an owl. The seasons change and things get harder for Vox Machina, then even harder and more tragic. And then somehow they come out of the other side alive, wounded and bleeding but by all means alive.

Percy is alive and he’s _happy_ and perhaps that’s the most peculiar thing. It’s due in no small part to that gunslinger and her silly hat and her laughter and her unwavering faith in him, even when he feels he isn’t worthy of it.

When Cordelia holds out one of her feathers in her beak, eyes sharp as she looks at where he sits at the desk in the corner of Vex’s bedroom, Percy doesn’t need to waste a spell to know what she wants. Call it a beast master’s intuition or simply a hunch, but he glances over to where the half-elf sleeps soundly in bed after a long evening of trying to fix her guns after they kept misfiring at the practice range.

“Darling?” he says softly as he settles down on the bed beside her, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

She stirs, looking grumpy at being woken up before she sees the soft expression on his face, at which point she smiles at him, holding a hand out. He takes it, twines their fingers together and squeezes. “Mmm, what is it?”

“I have something for you,” he tells her, then glances towards Cordelia, who flutters over and lands at the foot of the bed. “And so does Cordelia.”

Vex raises an eyebrow and he holds up the feather, almost glowing in the candlelight of the darkened room. He reaches forward and tucks the white feather behind her ear, white against black, and lets his fingertips linger there. The faintest touch grazes the tip of one pointed ear and she inhales sharply, as if this is the most intimate thing they’ve ever done. (Percy can assure that it’s most certainly not at this point.)

Vex seems amused at the gift but by the way she squeezes his hand, he’s willing to make a guess that she’s touched.

“Thank you,” she says softly, her dark eyes looking up into his blue. She turns to the snowy owl sitting next to Percy on the bed and sits up so she can give a little curtsy, or the best imitation of one that she can do when she’s sitting up against the headboard. “And thank you for your feather, my good lady.”

Cordelia coos in response, hopping up so she can rest in the woman’s lap. Vex reaches out and scratches the owl right where she likes it, a familiarity formed between the two of them over the years.

Suddenly Vex’s face lights up in a grin, turning to Percy. “Oh, darling! I know just what to do with this! Hand me my hat, will you?”

Percy raises an eyebrow but complies, snagging it off the chair on the other side of her nightstand and giving it to her. Looking downright pleased with herself, Vex plucks the snow-white feather out from behind her ear and tucks it into the brim of her hat, right against the blue plume.

Percy snorts despite himself. “Really?”

“Yeah!” With that she plops the hat back on her head, new feather and all, and grins broadly at him.

“That hat is so ridiculous, dear,” he says, but there’s an unmistakable fondness there. He loves the hat, nearly as much as he loves the woman wearing it.

“What can I say?” Vex laughs, reaching out to take a fistful of Percy’s shirt so she can drag him in for a kiss. “I have a penchant for ridiculous hats and pretty rangers.”

**Author's Note:**

> the first scene of this fic is actually pretty much based off of [this adorable piece from kalidels](https://twitter.com/kalidels/status/874327585144020992)! *-*


End file.
